FD-350 clipping, Seattle Post-Intelligencer 11/25/71: 'Man Hijacks Jet to Reno, Vanishes'

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

---

Man Hijacks Jet to Reno, Vanishes

37 Released Here; Ransom Of $200,000

---

BY DICK CLEVER

A man who hijacked a Seattle-bound jet- liner and collected $200,000 ransom here before releasing 35 passengers and two stewardesses had vanished by the time the plane taxied to a stop in Reno last night.

The hijacker, thought to be armed with a dynamite bomb, picked up the money and four parachutes during a tense refuel- ing stop at Seattle-Tacoma Airport before ordering the crew of the Northwest Air- lines 727 to fly him toward Mexico by way of Reno, Nev.

He was holding a stewardess, Tina Muck- low, as a hostage in the rear of the plane. When the plane taxied to a stop in Reno, the hijacker was not on board.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane stopped long enough as it was taxiing toward the terminal to allow the man to escape through an emergency exit.

---

Sheriff's deputies with dogs began a search for him among houses surrounding the airport.

The crew of three men and the steward- ess were unharmed.

The pilot of the 727, Capt. W. "Bill" Scott, said the hijacker had locked a door between the cabin and the back compart- ment and he did not know whether the hi- jacker had parachuted during the trip.

Pilots of two Air Force planes shadow- ing the hijacked jetliner said they had seen no one jump.

One parachute of the four loaded at Seattle was missing.

Other crew members included flight of- ficers W. "Bob" Rataczak and H. E. An- derson. Northwest spokesmen said all the crew members are from Minneapolis, headquarters for the airline.

J.E. Milnes, special agent in charge of the Seattle FBI office, said the hijacker boarded the plane in Portland, approached a stewardess with a note, and said he

wanted $200,000 and four parachutes--two backpacks and two frontpacks.

Milnes said the stewardess told the crew that the man had a briefcase containing several red cylinders con- nected by pieces of wire, but he declined to speculate whether the cylinders were flares or explosives.

The plane landed at Sea-Tac after the hijack- er had been assured that the ransom money and the parachutes would be ready and waiting for him.

"Everything is ready and waiting for your arrival," the Sea-Tac tower radioed

---

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)

p. A1 Seattle Post- Intelligencer Seattle, Wash.

Date: 11/25/71 Edition: Final Author: Dick Clever Editor: Dick Lyall Title: UNSUB; Northwest Airlines, Flight 305, Portland to Seattle Character: 11/24/71 or CAA-HIJACKING;EXT Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

☐ Being Investigated

---

[illegible] SENT [illegible] COPIED ........ SERIALIZED .........FILED ......... [illegible] 1 [guess: 7] 71 FBI--SEATTLE

---

DB Cooper-22508

the pilot five minutes be- fore he landed. The plane coasted to a stop at 5:45 p.m. in front of the airport's main adminis- tration building about one- half mile from the passen- ger terminal. The hijacker at first in- sisted that the plane be stopped in a brightly lit por- tion of the airport, but he settled for the isolated area rather than park in front of the passenger complex. The hijacker messaged through the pilot that he wanted fuel "out here right now." Northwest Orient head- quarters in Minneapolis asked the FBI not to take any action to board the plane or to capture the hi- jacker, and Milnes said agents complied "in every way" with the hijacker's orders. The pilot told the tower that he wanted no vehicles or people approaching the plane until "we get coordi- nated with our friend in the back." The passengers and two stewardesses were allowed off the plane and were taken by bus to the terminal. The two stewardesses were identified as Alice Hancock and Florence Schaffner. Only one vehicle was al- lowed to approach the plane at a time and delays in re- fueling created an extreme- ly tense situation during which the pilot expressed some irritation over the hour and a half it took to load 4,960 pounds of fuel. The hijacker, Scott told the tower, was very antsy." Twenty minutes after the plane landed however, the money, the parachutes, and meals for the hijacker and the crew were on board. The hijacker and FAA of- ficials negotiated for about two hours before he told the pilot, "Let's get the show on the road." The plane took off at 7:41 p.m, after the pilot told the FAA control tower, "sorry for all the trouble." A controller replied, "that's all right, no prob- lem." The hijacker was de-

---

scribed by the passengers as dark co[guess: complexioned] and "very relaxed." "We had no idea there was a hijacker involved un- til we got off the plane," said Arnold Andvik, a pas- senger from Seattle. The hijacker set a course for Reno, about 500 miles from Sea-Tac. The plane had enough fuel to travel about 2,000 miles under normal conditions, but of- ficials said with the flaps and wheels down the plane would burn an enormous amount of fuel. The 727 was tailed by

---

three military planes on its flight to Reno. A public information offi- cer at Hamilton Air Force Base 30 miles north of San Francisco reported that an Air Force F106 jet fighter and a T33 jet trainer had followed the hijacked airlin- er out of Seattle. The Hamilton AFB spokesman said an HC130 rescue plane was launched from Hamilton "as a pre- cautionary measure." The spokesman said the HC130 had rescue equip- ment and parachute rescue jumpers on board.

---

An FBI spokesman in Se- attle said a man identified as Michael Cooper was being investigated in con- nection with the hijack. The Associated Press re- ported from Missoula, Mont., that Leonard Kraut of the U.S. Forest Service smokejumper training cen- ter said he had been con- tacted by the FBI. Kraut said he told the FBI that no man by that name had "jumped from this base." Police in Missoula said a Michael Cooper grew up there, but they had no

---

record on him. A Boeing Co., spokesman said it would "be a very safe drop" to bail out of the 727, which is one of the few commercial aircraft from which a person could bail out. An FAA supervisor who monitored the plane's radio said the hijacker was in the back of the airplane and "everyone else is in the front. "I guess he doesn't want them to know what he's doing," the supervisor said.

---

DB Cooper-22509